Management Thoughts for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs generally “think outside the box” and come up with new, innovative ideas. They seek under-served niches in the marketplace and find unique ways to fulfill unmet or unrecognized needs.

Once they start and grow the business, do Entrepreneurs still foster the culture of “Thinking Outside the Box” in their employees?

An Entrepreneur’s original initiative due to creative thinking is also applicable to his/her organization. If the culture of the company is one of innovation and finding unique ways of doing things better and faster, it will promote not only continued success for the company but also tremendous job satisfaction for employees.

Empower your employees and and encourage free thinking to come up with creative ways to perform their jobs better and improve processes in the company. Entrepreneurs should think outside the box for this employee performance management philosophy.

Do you believe that you need more words to effectively communicate your message? Does using too few sentences reduce the importance of your point? Is being verbose mean you are saying something important? If you think so, you might be wrong!

Effective communication means driving home your point powerfully in as few words as possible with a simple message.

People have a very short attention span, especially potential investors. If you can’t communicate your message succinctly yet powerfully, you might lose your audience. That is not a good thing.

Regardless of the target audience for Entrepreneurs – investors, clients, employees, vendors, bankers or others – learn to fine tune your message. Make it short and simple, yet effective for them to understand and retain. The longer you speak or write, the less is absorbed.

People will not say that you didn’t speak long enough, but they will definitely give you feedback that your message was short but effective. Which is preferable?

Entrepreneurs have to take risks, chart their own course, and have a single-minded focus. They are special!

Are they dogmatic about their ideas and vision? Sometimes there is a tendency to do so. There is resistance to change if it involves a different course of action than one originally charted by the Entrepreneur.

When circumstances sometimes demand changing direction, not doing so could be problematic.

Entrepreneurs should strive to alter, as necessary, their course themselves rather than due to pressure from others. Staying ahead of the game rather than being reactive is a wiser approach.

Being proactive allows Entrepreneurs to control the situation. If they have to react to external pressure to change course, it is more difficult to accept and might even cause friction.

Do the Right Things and stay ahead by making necessary changes before they are forced upon you.

Do Entrepreneurs know what drives their company? Is it the product, quality, people, service or something else?

When I visited a medical device company, I was pleasantly surprised to see, in the conference room, framed posters depicting the company’s key drivers. It was very clear to ascertain the company’s focus on quality, people, financial commitment and so on. I am sure that the company has communicated to their employees these drivers and also displayed the posters in prominent work areas.

Entrepreneurs should think about developing, in addition to the Vision and Mission, key drivers in various areas of the company and communicating them to their employees. Building a company culture starts with educating the employees on and then continually reinforcing the focus towards these key drivers.

Some might ask what kind of question is that? Why would someone think of letting go their customers?

While the old saying “the customer is always right” might be taken as gospel, it is not necessarily true that all customers are always ideal for your business.

Entrepreneurs might have to be courageous and exercise their leadership by firing some customers. Who are the likely candidates for a firing list?

Customers who are consistently not profitable for your business are not good for the long term. It is acceptable to have lower profits or losses from a customer over a short period for a potential lucrative strategic relationship. However, if the customer over a longer period continues to be a drain on your profitability, it might be time to let them drop off the list.

Chronic complainers, without legitimate reasons, are very difficult to service and cause undue headaches for your employees. Unless the customer has genuine reasons to be dissatisfied, it is not in the best interest of management to service clients that constantly create irrational demands on your staff.

Entrepreneurs need to develop an excellent reputation for service and customer relations, but if need be it is okay to fire certain problem customers.